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What Happens When Animals Are Sent To Space · Be Amazed

0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Ever since, the dawn of time, humankind has been fascinated by space travel.
0:05
[SPEAKER_00]: But did you know that long before we put the first astronaut on the moon in 1969, animals had already been boldly stepping into the unknown for years?
0:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Often with devastating consequences.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Though one very special aid actually became a full-blown astronaut.
0:22
[SPEAKER_00]: all in due time.
0:24
[SPEAKER_00]: For now, fasten your seatbelt space get at, lift off, and T-3.
0:28
[SPEAKER_00]: 2. Who can be bothered to wait?
0:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take a look at the mind-blowing and tragic history of every animal that went into space.
0:49
[SPEAKER_00]: In order to understand how an ape ever got the chance to become an astronaut, it's important to start?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, at the start, way back on June 20, 1944, an A4 test rocket called MW-18014 launched from the Pinnomundet Army Research Center in Germany.
1:06
[SPEAKER_00]: It sort upwards to a monumental height of 109 miles before crashing back down to Earth.
1:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the first object to ever cross the carmen line.
1:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Though at now, well rather than being an actual line, the Carmen Line is more of a proposed boundary 66 miles high, which later became the accepted threshold where it's atmosphere stops and space begins.
1:31
[SPEAKER_00]: But no animals were on board the A4 test rocket, it proved that sending living creatures to space might one day be possible.
1:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And that day wasn't far off, not even three years later on February 20, 1947, a group of fruit flies became the very first living organisms to go on a successful return journey in this space.
1:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Huh?
1:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Those persistent little pests?
1:55
[SPEAKER_00]: That's underwhelming?
1:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, hold your judgment.
1:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Scientists had been fascinated by fruit flies since the early 1900s.
2:02
[SPEAKER_00]: It turns out that the buzzing menace smashing into your window actually shares about 60% of your DNA, which explains why my little sister is so darn annoying.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Additionally, over a staggering 75% of genes that cause
2:21
[SPEAKER_00]: That means these early experiments would give scientists important info on how humans might respond to being in space.
2:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So in 1947 the US loaded an unspecified number of fruit flies on board of V2 rocket and launched them from the White San's Missal Range in New Mexico.
2:37
[SPEAKER_00]: The flies reached a height of 67 miles, a mile above the Carmen Threshold, and began descending.
2:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Upon re-entry, the capsule containing the flies broke away and safely parachuted back to the ground.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Not only did they survive, but further tests to see if space had any adverse effects on them came back negative.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They were fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome!
2:58
[SPEAKER_00]: From this point on, experiments sending animals into space, when crazy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Like, cray, cray, cray, cray.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So to help us keep track, I'm going to start a little counter.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now we don't exactly know how many flies made the initial journey, so I'm just going to add a little last risk for now.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But spoiler alert, that's not the last we'll be hearing from them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After getting the green light to fly from the flies on June 14, 1949, a racist monkey called Albert the second became the next animal, and first monkey successfully sent to space.
3:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Hold on, Albert the second?
3:34
[SPEAKER_00]: What happened to Albert the first?
3:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, not all launches were a successful.
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[SPEAKER_00]: See Albert first, planned launch was a year prior on June 18, 1948.
3:46
[SPEAKER_00]: However, multiple operational failures meant the mission didn't go as planned.
3:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Albert's breathing apparatus cut out before launch and the landing parachute system also failed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So even with a functioning oxygen supply, he'd never have survived reentry.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yikes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Albert wasn't used to ties before left off, so he probably didn't know what was going on.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But it's still a horrible tragedy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Even though this flight only reached a height of 39 miles before yet another failure, this time a faulty rocket valve, I think it's only right we show our respect.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sadly, well little prints.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sadly, Albert the second submission suffered similar mistakes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He launched from Hauliman Air Force Base in New Mexico to an altitude of 83 miles, making him the first mammal, primate, and monkey in space.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, however, upon re-entry, another parachute failure caused his capsule to strike the ground at blistering speeds.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Data collected from inside his loading capsules showed that Albert the second was fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: until the impact.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Cripes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After Albert II, Albert's three and four both launched though sadly neither of them had much luck either.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Albert III, a crab-eating Maccuck, failed to make it past the common line before his rocket exploded and Albert IV, another Reese's, became the second mammal in space but fell victim to another parachute failure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh man, there was an Albert V flight, however, unlike Albert's one through four, there was an
5:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, the flight itself was called Albert the Fifth, and it carried a mouse 85 miles into space.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But just like the previous Albert missions, another parachute failure meant none of the Albert flights successfully recovered any of the animals on board.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ha, now don't say I didn't warn you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of animals who went into space had a pretty rotten time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But every cloud has a silver lining.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because of their sacrifices, we learned that animals could survive the journey into space.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that was something.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Up until now, all animal missions had been launched by the U.S.
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[SPEAKER_00]: However in 1951, a new player entered the game.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Which changed the space race and maybe the history of humanity forever.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On July 22nd 1951, a new challenger emerged when the Soviet Union launched the R1-3A-1 rocket with two dogs on board.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now I know what you're thinking.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Not the bumpers, please anything but the bumpers!
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I hear you, but don't worry, the Soviets did things a little differently.
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[SPEAKER_00]: See both the American V2 rockets and the Soviet R1 rockets were replicas of the German A4 test rocket.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that was the first rocket sent in the space.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, even though the rockets were near identical, the Soviets were better at getting them to land.
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[SPEAKER_00]: How exactly?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a rocket scientist.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's cycle and as a quaint-a-space and came back without a scratch.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yay!
6:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Brace yourself though.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As it was sent back into space just a week later, and had a tragic accident alongside another dog, Lisa the first, due to yet another parachute failure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Despite what you might think, though, these accidents were thankfully few and far between.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Most of the animals sent on these missions came back.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Soviets were very secretive about their operations, so names of dogs and large states are fiercely debated.
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[SPEAKER_00]: However, according to the information I could find, after Lisa I, a whopping 17 flights carrying another 23 different dogs reached
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[SPEAKER_00]: with some dogs taking multiple trips.
7:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, several little space?
7:35
[SPEAKER_00]: What's that?
7:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it's science time.
7:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So all the rockets we've seen so far, every space, but they've not traveled fast enough to escape the Earth's gravitational pull.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Think of it like this, if you threw a ball and would travel through the air and then arc back down.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But if you could throw the ball hard enough that the arc-shaped remained constant with the curvature of the earth, you'd have thrown that ball into orbit.
8:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And rockets are the same.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For a vehicle to hit suborbital speeds, it needs to reach a blinding 3700 mph.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Heoints that fast, but to reach orbit at that same elevation, it needs to travel at an outrageously swift, 17,400 miles per hour.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For reference, airplanes only fly at around 575 miles per hour?
8:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Kroiki.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Rockets at the time just couldn't reach orbital speeds.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That is, until Lika.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lika, like most Soviet space dogs, was a female stray found kicking about the streets of Moscow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But despite her humble beginning, she became the first living creature to complete an orbit of the Earth.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Strays were preferred because scientists believed they were hardier, but Lyko was also chosen for her calm temperament.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So on November 3rd, 1957, the chilled-out pooch was loaded into her special containment chamber aboard the Sputnik II rocket ready for her big journey.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now you're probably wondering what exactly a dog or any animal actually needs to survive in space, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, do they get a cute little suit?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, kind of, but not like you to imagine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're not pretty, but they were surprisingly functional and effective.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The suit supplied the dog with oxygen, and they had enough room within the containment chamber to alternate between standing, laying down, and sitting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Dogs were also given a gelatinous food stuff for them to eat on the journey, like I had seven days worth of the delicious slopp.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm, tasty.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As for what happens when that food comes back out, they thought of that too.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The dogs were fitted with a special waist bag for all their dirty business, so it didn't end up looking like a Jackson Pollock painting in there.
9:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Sputnik II successfully launched and completed a single orbit in just over 103 minutes, and then another, and then another, and all of Lika's vital signs seemed good.
10:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But then Houston, we had a problem.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sometime during the fourth orbit, the internal temperature within the cabin shot up from 59 degrees Fahrenheit to 109 Fahrenheit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yikes!
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sputnik II was like a hot car, soaring 131 miles above the earth, and sensors on board showed like as health deteriorate rapidly.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh no!
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[SPEAKER_00]: However, it gets worse.
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[SPEAKER_00]: See for all the incredible milestones this mission burst and the heaps of valuable information
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[SPEAKER_00]: It sparked a lot of ethical debate, too.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, the Soviets had managed to engineer a rocket that could enter orbit, and one that could carry a living payload up there, too, but they hadn't taken the time to develop the technology to safely bring the rocket back.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Like it was chosen knowing full well, there'd be no return journey.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So you might not like their methods, but the Soviet Union were dominating this space stuff.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What was the USA doing then?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, honestly they were still struggling with monkeys.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On December 13, 1958, a squirrel monkey named Gordo was launched aboard a new Jupiter AM-13 rocket, which subsequently crashed somewhere in the South Atlantic Ocean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Not to worry.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This new rocket was equipped with a floatation mechanism designed to keep it above the water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Phew.
11:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh no way.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The mechanism failed and Gordo was never recovered.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Man, these poor monkeys ever gonna catch a break?
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[SPEAKER_00]: So far, not a single one that reached space had returned.
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[SPEAKER_00]: However, that was all about to change.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In 1959, two monkeys named Miss Able and Miss Baker shot to a staggering altitude of 360 miles before traveling a further 1,699 miles.
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[SPEAKER_00]: down the Atlantic Missal Range from Cape Canaveral.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No, they didn't literally ride the rockets like Space Cowboys, they were held in little capsules.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But as uncomfortable as this looks, both monkeys survived the flight.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Whoa!
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[SPEAKER_00]: Though sadly, Missable had some complications during surgery a few days later.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Irrespective of Abel's loss, both monkeys became media sensations in Miss Baker lived happily for another 25 years at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama.
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[SPEAKER_00]: finally some good news.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And the good vibes changes kept rolling.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Two further monkey flights won carrying Sam and the other imaginatively named Miss Sam were performed successfully in 1959 and 1960.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Neither flight managed to cross the Carmen line so they don't count towards our final tally, but the progress in the USA's rocket program seemed to be night and day.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Still, it only highlighted how big the gulf between the US and Soviet Union's capabilities were.
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[SPEAKER_00]: America had only just achieved what the Soviets had accomplished eight years prior.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Cribs.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And the Soviet Union showed no signs of slowing down, successfully sending into space two more dogs, Otvysnaya and Snazinka.
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[SPEAKER_00]: along with the very first rabbit, Marfusha.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Then on August 19th, 1962 pubs called Belka in Strelka, another rabbit, 42 mice, two rats, and another 15-flast full of fruit flies.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you, they'd be back.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They came the first company of animals to make it into orbit and return safely alive.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's incredible.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If I were to call it now, I'd say the space race was all but one.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But a shock twist was about to catapult the U.S. firmly back into the running.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On January 31st, 1961, America took an unprecedented leap ahead in this space race when they launched the Mercury Redstone 2 rocket, carrying number 65.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A chimpanzee who later became known as Ham.
13:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me, Ham?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, his name was an acronym of the Holliman Aerospace Medical Center.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The laboratory where he was trained.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But what made Ham special wasn't the fact he was the first great 8-8% space, nor his pension towards DeliMete.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No Ham was the first living creature to pilot a rocket.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, he what now?
14:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, cast your mind back to the start-up I said we were building toward something special did night.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While Ham was originally one of a test group of 40 champs selected for this very special flight, all of whom underwent rigorous testing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: These champs were taught to pull lever and response to sound and light.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Correct answers were awarded a taste to banana pellet, wrong answers however administered a mild electric shock to their feet.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yewch!
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[SPEAKER_00]: They were also regularly exposed to simulated space-like conditions to prepare them for the mission.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As the test went on, the worst-performing champs were wittled down over a period of 18 months.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 40 became 18, 18 became 6, and eventually 6 became just 2.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ham and many.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The only female in the group.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The final decision was made just hours before the flight.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ham would be the first living creature to ever attempt to pilot a space flight.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Jeez.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After lift off however the flight didn't exactly go as planned.
15:10
[SPEAKER_00]: What a surprise.
15:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Although it was supposed to cap out at an altitude of 115 miles and hit max speeds of 44 hundred miles per hour, the flight overshot the mark by a lot.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ham carined up to 157 miles high and hit blistering speeds of 58 hundred miles an hour.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That meant he landed a whopping 132 miles away from where he was supposed to.
15:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-oh.
15:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily, Hamm had been suited up and placed into a specialized capsule which would allow him to breathe even if the spacecraft cabin lost pressure.
15:45
[SPEAKER_00]: and just as well, lo and behold an issue with the flight meant it did lose pressure.
15:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But Ham was safe.
15:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The Navy tracked him down and other than being tired dehydrated and understandably irritable, he was tipped up.
15:58
[SPEAKER_00]: But the most amazing thing was that Ham's reaction times when performing his piloting tests in space were only slightly slower than when he performed them on Earth.
16:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Ham had officially proved it was possible for astronauts to perform activities in space conditions.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What a legend.
16:17
[SPEAKER_00]: In case you haven't figured it out yet, all of these animal flights were working towards a very singular goal, sending a human into space.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In many ways, Ham's mission was the final hurdle in achieving that.
16:31
[SPEAKER_00]: The USA had gone from floundering behind the Soviet Union to being in pole position.
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[SPEAKER_00]: However, just as they were prepping for their first man flight, they received some truly shocking news.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On April 12, 1961, Soviet astronaut Yuri Gargorn became the first human to journey and out or space.
16:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, this tale takes another twist.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Traveling on Vostok 1, he completed a single orbit of Earth before safely returning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Soviet Union had one.
17:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But how?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have a say seems so far ahead?
17:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the Soviets had been running a few final animal missions in the run-up which proved vital in their success.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Burstlay on March 9, 1961, Corbill's Sputnik IV was launched containing a number of mice, our first guinea pig, a dog caught her nushka, and a mannequin, they'd named Ivan Ivanovich.
17:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Together this Ragtag crew made a single orbit of Earth before the dummy was ejected from the capsule during reentry.
17:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, Ivan's parachute opened and he came down without a scratch.
17:35
[SPEAKER_00]: All the animals on board were also retrieved safely.
17:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they ran it back on March 25th, this time with a wooden dummy and a dog caused fit Stochka, personally named by Gargarin.
17:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, the dummy was ejected while the dog remained inside and again, both were successfully recovered.
17:52
[SPEAKER_00]: With a newfound confidence coming off the back of the two flights, it was finally Gargarin's turn.
17:58
[SPEAKER_00]: His single orbit at 104 miles high lasted just 108 minutes from launch to landing.
18:04
[SPEAKER_00]: but it had taken a lifetime of human achievement and preparation.
18:08
[SPEAKER_00]: The USA responded by sending astronaut Alan Shepherd into suborbital space on May 5, 1961, but it felt like nothing compared to what Gargarin had achieved.
18:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And just to solve the US's wounds, the Soviets carried out another mission, Vostok II, on August 6, 1961.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This time it carried German Titov and orbited the Earth a whopping 17 times.
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[SPEAKER_00]: M. Soviets were literally running labs around the Americans.
18:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's take a momentary leap forward in time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As of June, 2023, a total of 617 humans, including Gargaran, Shepherd and Titov, have taken the journey into space.
18:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Technically, we're animals too, so let's add all those… boom!
18:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, now back to 1961, the USA's pride was heard by the Soviet success, and things only went from bad to worse for them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On November 29, 1961, they launched another champ, Enos, into space.
19:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Though this time, unlike Ham, he'd be going all the way into orbit.
19:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Enos was meant to complete three orbits, but the mission was abandoned after just two.
19:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Complications with the capsul overheating and malfunction with an onboard test system, Enos accidentally got electrocuted a horrifying 76 times.
19:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite this, he did safely make it back to Earth without any long-term issues.
19:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Good stuff, Monkey.
19:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, no more attempts were ever made to send an ape into orbit again, and the USS Pride was only hurt more.
19:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You'd think once humans had finally gone to space that all these animal flights would calm down, right?
19:47
[SPEAKER_00]: wrong.
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Post-Gagarin is actually where things started getting really wild.
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[SPEAKER_00]: See, throughout the 1960s, even more nations decided to throw their head in the ring.
19:58
[SPEAKER_00]: France and a rat, Hector, up in 1961, who came back safe and sound, then in 1964, China flew eight mice on board a T-78.
20:07
[SPEAKER_00]: A year later, they launched three more missions sending one rat, five mice, two dogs, and, oh, look, more fruit flies, up into space.
20:15
[SPEAKER_00]: and they all reportedly made it back safely.
20:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Argentina also joined the party sending a red-card Bellassario up in 1967.
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Guess what?
20:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Big boy Bellassario returned safely too.
20:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, everything was going pretty well, right?
20:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Animal go up, animal come down.
20:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I actually haven't mentioned one pretty big hiccup that happened four years before Bellissario made headlines.
20:40
[SPEAKER_00]: On October 18, 1963, the French Space Program launched Felicity, the first and only cat to ever go into space.
20:48
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right, Cat lovers, it's not all about dogs.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Your favorite furry companion has conquered the cosmos, too.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just glad they didn't send them up together.
20:56
[SPEAKER_00]: That could have got messy.
20:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Felicity was selected ahead of 14 other cats because of how Dasile she was, although every cat in the test group was surgically fitted with electrodes.
21:08
[SPEAKER_00]: These monitored their brain activity during testing to see how space travel affected it.
21:13
[SPEAKER_00]: The flight itself was pretty straightforward, Felicity flew suborbidably for just 13 minutes before landing safely, and the electrodes provided heaps of high-quality data.
21:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice.
21:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait a minute.
21:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I said there was a pretty big hiccup, didn't I?
21:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, two months after the flight scientists decided they wanted to close her look at Felicity's brain.
21:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no nice way of saying this, but there's no coming back from a brain autopsy.
21:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Hard-breakingly after all she'd been through, that was the end for Felicity.
21:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And to make it all even worse, the scientists didn't actually learn anything useful from the autopsy.
21:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Ending your life was literally pointless.
21:50
[SPEAKER_00]: that's devastating.
21:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Even so, Felicity wasn't undeniably huge milestone for France and establishing the world's third civilian space agency after the Soviet Union and the USA.
22:01
[SPEAKER_00]: However, her flight never got the same level of publicity as others did at the time.
22:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Photographs of electrodes in her head didn't sit well with a growing animal rights movement who considered her treatment cruel.
22:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd have to agree.
22:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Nevertheless, Felicity went down in history, and as recently as 2017, a crowdfunding campaign raised around $50,000, to build a commemorative statue at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.
22:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, it feels bad knowing Felicity's life was cut short for no reason.
22:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, spaceflight took a bit of a turn after the mid-1960s, suddenly just getting to space was so last decade.
22:41
[SPEAKER_00]: That ship had sailed, or rocket had flown, I guess, whatever.
22:46
[SPEAKER_00]: The focus now move towards longer missions and the prolonged effects of exposure to zero gravity environments.
22:52
[SPEAKER_00]: On February 22, 1966, Soviet rocket Cosmos 110 carried two dogs, Bitterock and Ogoliuk into space.
23:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But this was no two-hour joy ride.
23:03
[SPEAKER_00]: They stayed out there all the way until March 16th, a whopping 22 days later.
23:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Think of all the gelatinous lot they got to eat, mmmmm yummy.
23:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Incredibly, they both came back down alive and to this day, no dogs have ever spent longer in space.
23:19
[SPEAKER_00]: That's partially because no more dogs participated in the Soviet space mission.
23:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Between 1951 and 1966, the Soviet Union had launched a staggering 57 dogs into the great yonder.
23:31
[SPEAKER_00]: many of them flying more than once, and apart from a few freak accidents and one like a shaped horror show, it proved a resounding success.
23:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, the U.S. launched Biocatalite 1 in December 1966 in Biocatalite 2 in September 1967.
23:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Between them they carried fruit flies, parasitic wasps, and flower beetles, along with frog eggs, bacteria, single-celled organisms called amoeba, plants, and fungi.
24:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't I bet if I was kicking it outside their lab that day they'd have thrown me in there, too.
24:04
[SPEAKER_00]: See, space missions didn't just get longer.
24:07
[SPEAKER_00]: They also got more ambitious.
24:10
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1968, the Soviet Union launched Zahn-5, which went on a circular voyage around the moon carrying two horse-field tortoises, along with fruit-fly eggs, and some more plants.
24:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Huh?
24:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Tortuses?
24:24
[SPEAKER_00]: In space?
24:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, Soviet scientists believe they'd be easier to secure down for longer journeys.
24:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So these became not just the first tortoises but the first living creatures to ever make it around the moon.
24:37
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a small step for man and a very slow step for those tortoises.
24:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Zahn-5 launched on September 14th, reached the moon on September 18th and re-inert Earth's atmosphere on September 21st.
24:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though their capsule overshot its designated landing site, the tortoises were safely recovered, and have slightly thinner after a prolonged fast in space.
24:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Zahn-5 was swiftly followed by Zahn-6 in 1968 and 7 in August 1969.
25:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Zahn-6 also carried two tortoises, whereas Zahn-7 carried four of the shelled space rangers.
25:13
[SPEAKER_00]: However, the true peak of tortoise space exploration, which is a sudden sight didn't expect to say today, happened in 1975, when a so-used 20 with an unknown number of tortoises on board was sent to space for a staggering 90 and a half days.
25:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Around the time of the U.S.'s groundbreaking man to Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969 reports began describing animal synthesis simply biological payloads, which really goes to show how little officials cared about them.
25:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, during the 1960s and 70s, members of the public began protesting heavily for better animal welfare.
25:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can't say I'm surprised.
25:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean think about it.
25:54
[SPEAKER_00]: The early monkey missions were a disaster.
25:56
[SPEAKER_00]: As for Ham, he was taken from his family at a very young age and spent 18 months being electrocuted because he literally couldn't do rocket science.
26:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, he's held as a national hero, but after his mission, he was shipped off to a zoo where he lived until just 26.
26:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Most male chimps typically live until around 40.
26:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And what about poor felicity?
26:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Or the other 13 cats that had electrocuted stuck in their heads, but never even got to be castranots.
26:24
[SPEAKER_00]: See the space agency say, the noble shaker vases of these animals which have great series to technologically advancements, or that without testing the Soviet and American space programs would have suffered great losses of human life, which, yes, is true.
26:40
[SPEAKER_00]: However, the treatment of these animals was often callous and reckless.
26:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Humans know what they're getting into, animals don't.
26:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Human astronauts reap heavy rewards in our health as heroes.
26:52
[SPEAKER_00]: The animals who were lucky enough to survive were hardly even taken care of, and that's seriously poor.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: But did that do anything to stem the flow?
27:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Not on your Nellie.
27:03
[SPEAKER_00]: From 1969 up until the late 90s, a whole load more animals were sent into space.
27:08
[SPEAKER_00]: 14 more monkeys, two bullfrogs, tortoises, noots, mice, momma-chogs, spiders, rants, guinea pigs, Japanese tree frogs, cricket snails, carp, rice fish, oyster, towed fish, zebra danios, sea urchins, sore tailfish, brine-trap, and jellyfish.
27:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Who holy crap.
27:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And unless I've specified how many, we don't know how many.
27:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Fortunately, things did slow down a lot moving into the 2000s.
27:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Even so, the decade didn't come
27:38
[SPEAKER_00]: The final flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003 carried silkworms, spiders, carpenter bees, harvester ants, and kill a fish.
27:47
[SPEAKER_00]: However, in accident, as the shuttle re-inert Earth's atmosphere wiped out the entire payload.
27:53
[SPEAKER_00]: This time alongside seven humans who were also on board.
27:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Damn, just when you thought it couldn't get much worse.
28:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But then came a shockingly positive development during the European Space Agency's photon
28:07
[SPEAKER_00]: As you've seen, one of the major challenges of sending animals into space had meant sufficiently protecting them for the whole journey.
28:15
[SPEAKER_00]: But what if there was an animal that didn't need protecting?
28:18
[SPEAKER_00]: You've probably never seen a Tardigrade before in the flesh, and that's because they're about 0.01 inches long.
28:25
[SPEAKER_00]: But don't be fooled by their size.
28:27
[SPEAKER_00]: They're extremely hardy.
28:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So hardy, they can survive exposure to space with nothing but their natural protections.
28:34
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right, no helmets.
28:37
[SPEAKER_00]: In the 2007 mission, a number of them were exposed to the vacuum of space and survived for ten full days.
28:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeez!
28:45
[SPEAKER_00]: See if one of these little guys ends up floating amongst the stars, they enter in a metabolic state, which is a fancy way of saying they shut down all the life processes going on inside them.
28:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, wouldn't that just kill them?
28:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, no, see, when in an extreme environment their body starts producing a unique protein.
29:04
[SPEAKER_00]: This protein makes all the liquid inside the tartar grade much more viscous, like honey.
29:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And this viscosity slows down the life processes happening to them.
29:13
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, things like cells breaking down?
29:16
[SPEAKER_00]: They're still happening, but so slowly that the tartar grid can live almost indefinitely in this state.
29:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty remarkable, right?
29:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And it has some wide reaching implications for what we may be able to achieve in the future.
29:29
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not the only incredible thing that happened during Photon M3.
29:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Some cockroaches that were on board started a... mantras bouncing, and one of the females actually conceived on the mission.
29:41
[SPEAKER_00]: That means those
29:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Moving into the 2010s, things got busier again, but the majority of the animals sent to space were mice, small insects, or more turnigrades.
29:59
[SPEAKER_00]: The last monkey was launched in 2013 on an Iranian Pishcom rocket.
30:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Days later, Iran also sent a mouse to Turtles and some worms, while of which returned safely.
30:10
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2014, however, Russia announced a mission containing five geckos that sadly failed.
30:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Elon Musk's SpaceX even got involved delivering a whopping 80 mice to a specially built test facility on the International Space Station between 2014 and 2018.
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: However, that's not the weirdest thing SpaceX have said.
30:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, frankly, I think we might have saved the strangest animal until the very end.
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: On June 3, 2021, SpaceX's CRS-22 launched a Hawaiian Bob-tail squid to the ISS.
30:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Bob Till's squid have an organ that produces light, which is fueled by bacteria that squid produces.
30:50
[SPEAKER_00]: By sending hatchlings into space, they're hoping to see how spaceflight changes animal micro patterns.
30:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Microbes are tiny microorganisms that we humans rely on to maintain healthy digestive and immune systems.
31:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So this could play a vital role in understanding more about our acute biological functions.
31:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, it's kind of weird, right?
31:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless, that brings us nearly to the close of our epic animal escapade.
31:16
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's one more thing to do.
31:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Tally the total number of animals sent into space.
31:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Boy, I feel like I need a warm-up.
31:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
31:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Out of what we concretely know, the final scores on the doors are, at least 20 monkeys, not including Albert 1, Rip home 8, over 137 miles, 37 dogs, 1 ravaged 5 rats, 2 apes, 617 humans, or the one guinea pig, one cat, at least 10 tortoises, 2 turtles, 2 bullfrogs, and 5 geckos.
31:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just what we know.
31:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget about a few thousand fruit flies parasitic wasse, flower beetles, nudes, homochogs, spiders, Japanese tree frogs, crickets, snails, cockroaches, carp, rice, fish, oyster toadfish, zebra danios, sea urchins, soar toadfish, brine trump jellyfish, soakworms, bees, and scalyfish, tardigrade worms, and last but definitely not leaves, some baby squid.
32:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Whew, that dart, I feel spaced out after that.
32:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Basically, that's a hell of a lot of animals.
32:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Was it all worth it?
32:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I really don't know.
32:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I do know that those numbers are only going to keep going up as we strive in our endless quest for knowledge.
32:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully that quest doesn't come at the expense of any more innocence.
32:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the podcast, we'll see you again next time you'll want to be amazed.
32:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for watching.